T&L Reviews Lexia PowerUp Literacy

Quality and Effectiveness: Schools often struggle with how to identify which upper-level students (grades 6 and up) are not proficient in fundamental skill areas and then to help those students become effective, proficient readers. Lexia PowerUp Literacy is a dynamic program that can help with everything from identifying these students to providing instruction, collecting and analyzing data, and offering scripted lessons for teachers. PowerUp helps students close skill gaps in word study, grammar, and comprehension.

The program offers more than 60 initial placement combinations at the advanced, intermediate, and foundational levels. Non-proficient readers are presented with independent tasks that adapt based on their responses. Students receive immediate feedback and appropriate instruction in both literacy and critical thinking skills and the program covers a rigorous scope and sequence. If the student continues to struggle, the teacher is notified and provided with an offline lesson to target that particular skill.

Ease of Use: Student learning is self-directed, and individualized dashboards help them set and manage goals and choose which activities (with game-like interfaces) to complete. Students receive immediate feedback and appropriate scaffolding before attempting the activity again.

Teacher dashboards track student usage of the program, progress through the content, skills acquired, and areas of difficulty. Teachers can access real-time student performance data that is easy to interpret and, if a student is struggling, they also receive instructional resources. PowerUp does assessment without testing and automatically flags student for lessons.

Creative Use of Technology: Age-appropriate material is particularly important for students in these grades, and PowerUp provides hook videos to introduce age-appropriate informational texts that will interest students. Instructional videos with music and humor teach concepts like grammar, comprehension, and elements of literacy. PowerUp would also work well for students to practice skills at home or in the context of after-school activities.

Suitability for Use in a School Environment: PowerUp can help schools close the achievement gap and gives educators the online data and tools they need to intensify and accelerate literacy skills development for non-proficient readers. The program engages students with high-interest and authentic texts, videos, game-based elements, and personalized learning.

OVERALL RATING:

PowerUp is an excellent, comprehensive program for helping non-proficient readers in grades 6 and up to develop literacy fundamentals and higher-order thinking skills.

TOP FEATURES

1. Fills pressing need for excellent software targeted to help older students become effective, proficient readers.

2. The focus is on three important areas for proficient readers: word study, grammar, and comprehension.

3. Excellent dashboards help students and teachers to be successful with learning skills and presenting concepts.